Written by Amanda Coers – The Brown County Commissioners’ Court met at 9:20 a.m. at the Brown County Courthouse on Monday after awaiting the arrival County Judge Ray West. Commissioners Joel Kelton and Larry Traweek were present, and Commissioners Gary Worley and Wayne Shaw were absent.
On the agenda was consideration and possible approval to renew Legislative Consulting Agreement with Bob Turner.
Bob Turner served as a Democratic representative for Texas House District 73 from 1991 to 2003. As part of his consulting services, Bob Turner has been representing Brownwood and Brown County for the past six years. Through his involvement with the Texas House, Senate and State Agencies, Turner was tasked with representing the Brown County area in Austin and keeping the community informed of legislation that would impact the area, both negatively and positively.
The total cost of the two-year contract is just over $40,000. Last year the fee was divided six ways between the City of Brownwood, the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce, the Brownwood Municipal Development District, Brown County, and the Brown County Water Improvement District, along with the City of Early. With the different entities sharing the cost, each could receive the consultant services for around $3,600 per year.
On Tuesday, December 13th, the Brownwood City Council approved the continuation of the contract for services, however the Early City Council declined to move forward during their meeting that same day.
This month the Brownwood Chamber of Commerce, and the Brown County Water Improvement District have voted to approve the agreement. The Brownwood Municipal Development District will vote on the issue on Tuesday, December 19th at 1:30 in the council chambers at City Hall.
Present to address the court on the matter at Commissioners’ Court were Brown County Republican Chairman Robert Porter and Daniel Graham. Robert Porter was first to speak, providing reasons to continue the agreement for Turner’s services.
“We have a state representative, we have a senator. They have limited abilities to be everyplace, they’re just one person each, granted they have staff,” Porter began in his remarks. “Much of their time is spent on the senate floor or in committees for which they are assigned. There are many other committees going on that may affect rural issues in Brown County and that’s where we’ve got Bob Turner and Joe Morris attending those other committee meetings and keeping their eyes and ears to the task of looking out for things that may be positive that we need to get behind and support, or maybe they’re negative and we need to express our concern about those issues.”
Porter also informed the court 11,919 bills were filed collectively between the Senate and the House and expressed his concern that it would be impossible for current representation to be fully informed on each bill and how they might affect the area in Brown County.
During Robert Porter’s comments to the commissioners, Judge West left the courtroom for a brief period of time, returning after the comments had been concluded, just before Daniel Graham came forward to speak.
Second to address the commissioners was Daniel Graham, who shared his concerns regarding redundancy and efficiency.
“Taxpayers are tired are paying for things that they don’t see the value in,” Graham said. “What I see is we have a lot of people being paid, not just the state rep and the state senator, but really I’m looking at you all, the Commissioners’ Court.”
He then shared the salaries for each commissioner in 2004 being listed as $33,000 annually each.
“I don’t imagine it’s gone down,” Graham said, speaking of the salaries paid for the commissioners.
“It seems to me like the commissioners themselves with their salary positions and their time might be able to start to take over some of this responsibility of the legislative oversight in their free time. It’s not like in the age of the internet you have to go down to Austin and you have to be there.”
After Daniel Graham concluded in his comments before the court, Judge West motioned to meet with him outside the court to speak privately, returning a few minutes later.
Commissioner Joel Kelton inquired whether or not Bob Turner also represented other counties in Texas, to which Robert Porter replied Bob Turner did have contracts with other entities in Texas.
With the absence of two of the four county commissioners, the court tabled action on the agenda item. The matter will be discussed again at the next Commissioners’ Court scheduled to be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2018.
An audio of the Commissioners’ Court in full can be heard here:
NOTE: This article has been edited to correct Joe Morris’ name previously listed as Joe Lawrence. Further clarity was needed on Robert Porter’s answer to Joel Kelton’s question, and corrections were made to better reflect Mr. Porter’s answer.
